John River Undergoes Surgery for Brain Fluid Leak

Back in February, the management team for Mississauga MC John River revealed that the rapper's debilitating illness was caused by paraspinal pain, severe anemia, a dislocated jaw joint and intracranial hypotension that had left his brain "sagging in his head for 40 days." Now, River's family has shared an update on his condition.

A post on social media from River's brother Marcus reveals that the MC born Matthew Derrick-Huie had undergone two surgeries to fix a brain fluid leak.

An accompanying message finds Marcus writing to his brother, "I know this wasn't expected for life at 23. Seeing you slowly lose feeling in your limbs, vision, bladder function was hard. Seeing you in a psychiatric ward, where they told me & mom to 'stop indulging your fantasy' was unforgivable."

His message continued: "A few times when paramedics were trying to bring you back to consciousness, we thought you were dead. You were calm though, you never wavered. I watched you reach out to the public for help, only for friends to tell us to check you back into a psychiatric ward.

"‪I'll never forget the way people treated you when you were at your weakest, but 2 spinal surgeries down, step 1 is out of the way. It'll be a while before you can see, hear & walk normally but GOD got big plans for you & the day you get back, you're going to set the world on fire.‬"